Investigating the Potential of Increasing the Vase Life of Cut Flower of Narcissus by Using Sour Orange Fruit Extract and Sucrose in the Storage Conditions

Narcissus is one of the very popular flowers among Iranians. This flower has a short life. To investigate the increasing of vase life of cut Narcissus, sour orange fruit extract in concentrations of 2.5, 4, 5.5 and 7 ml L-1 and sucrose in concentrations of 3, 4, 5 and 6% were used. In addition, distilled water was used as a control treatment. In this experiment, characters of vase life and percentage of unopened buds were evaluated in end of experiment, but the relative fresh weight, water absorption, soluble solids of petals and stems were measured from first to 29th day. The longest vase life was obtained in the treatment of sour orange fruit extract with concentration of 4 ml L-1 with 30.33 days and the shortest life of control was obtained with 18.33 days. Also, the least and highest percentage of unopened buds were observed in treated flowers with sour orange fruit extract of 4 ml L-1 and sucrose of 6%, respectively. The maximum amount of fresh weight, solution absorption, soluble solids of petals and stems were obtained in concentration of 2.5 ml L-1 of sour orange fruit extract. In general, results show that sour orange fruit extract and sucrose in low concentrations can be used as healthy, cheap and easy access compounds in vase solution of cut flower of Narcissus.